Europe for Beginners

A taste of France and Germany, and an update from London

Welcome to the inaugural edition of the European Excursions blog. It’s been a while since the last entry of the Asian Adventure, and it certainly feels like a lifetime since we arrived in England. We’ve settled into a more regular pace of life, and thoroughly enjoyed just hanging out with friends again.

We haven't done too many touristy things here in England yet - after four months travel sightseeing was the last thing we felt like doing! Just living and enjoying getting to know London has been great. London's just a village really, sort of like a bigger, older version of home, without verandas. We have to keep reminding ourselves we live in a different country!

After a relaxing couple of months staying with the Ferguson's in Guildford, we're now living in Hammersmith in West London, really close to the Thames. It's a really nice area and has great transport links all over London.

Amy has been working on contract at a London Borough Council for three months now, and I've just landed a permanent job at the Environment Agency (only took four months!) which is a huge relief. Unfortunately Amy won't let me give up my temping job as a postman for Royal Mail until I start my new job...

For those of you who fancy trawling through some photos of our London activities, you can do so by clicking the link below (then click on the first photo). Those who are not on facebook don't need to sign up to view the photos.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=128315&id=525220030&l=64841d1d1d

Life here on this side of the world is all good really. And so a little more than three months since we arrived, our thoughts turned to the continent across the English Channel, which brings me back to the real purpose of this blog...

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Carcassonne - Languedoc-Roussillon, France

Crossing the drawbridge into La Cité Médiévale de Carcassonne was either like stepping back in time or stepping into Disneyland, depending on your level of cynicism! We were definitely in the former camp, and found our first foray into France (and Europe for that matter) a delightful experience.

Shortly after our arrival in the UK one of the budget airlines released a whole bunch of flights for £1 each. Never ones to shy from a bargain, we managed to bag ourselves return flights to Carcassonne in the south of France for the grand total of £12 each return. The only problem was we’d never even heard of the place!

A little research revealed that Carcassonne was in fact the third most visited destination in France, and that the big draw card was La Cité Médiévale - a fortified medieval city and châteaux which was entirely restored in the 19th Century.

We spent an entire day wandering its battlements, squares, and cobbled alleyways, which are still inhabited by residences and businesses. La Cité was equally spectacular at night, with the battlements flood lit and restaurants doing a roaring trade.

It was great to feel like we were actually “on holiday” again, a feeling we didn’t really get in Asia. It was also a different experience not being an obvious foreigner, with people walking up and speaking to you as if you’re a local - something that would never have happened in Asia!

The French staples of wine, bread, and cheese at bargain prices was the other dominant theme of the weekend, which led to some very sleepy afternoons... The town of Carcassonne itself was very cute but quite small, and 48 hours was certainly the right length of time.

Attempting communication in our pidgin French was quite fun, and we’re looking forward to getting some more practice on our next trip to France!

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Kröv/Mosel - Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

Our French language skills may have been minimal, but our German was non-existent! Fortunately for us, we had an interpreter! Last weekend we jetted off to Europe again, this time with our friends Lisa and Paul, to visit Amy and Lisa’s school friend Kathy who was working at Staffelter Hof winery in Kröv, on the Mosel River.

Once again we managed to grab cheap some cheap flights (although at some ungodly hours) that enabled us to spend a full three days. We stayed with Kathy at the winery, where we were completely spoilt by the owners with tastings, tours, fantastic bottles of wine, and loads of food.

We managed to arrive right at the end of the harvest, so avoided all the work but managed to join in the end of harvest celebrations! We had a fantastic night out with the winery staff, drinking 20 year old Riesling (who knew there was so much variety in one type of wine?!) and amazingly good German wheat beer. And that was just the first day!

Apparently the Mosel region is popular with retired German holidaymakers, so to get in theme we dragged ourselves onto a tour bus filled with blue rinses and red parkas, only to discover that the commentary was entirely in German (unsurprisingly in hindsight) with some interesting grunts we weren’t sure were part of any language...

Fortunately Kathy was able to pick out the key information for us and we were left to enjoy a scenic ride up the Mosel to Trier, which claims to be the oldest city in Germany. With some very well preserved Roman gates, walls, baths, bridges, and churches - some of which were over 2000 years old - we’d say it had a pretty good claim!

We also boated upriver to Bernkastel, where we hiked to the castle ruins and picnicked overlooking the valley, and did some more wine-tasting. We ate plenty of sausage, schnitzel, and pommes (fries) - although we didn’t see too many vegetables... We also found a crate of beer (20 x 500ml bottles) for only €5.40 - which is only NZ$11! Unbelievable value!

Travelling with friends was a new thing for us, and something we’re keen to do more of. Loads of laughs and talking in terrible German accents, and we didn’t even mention the war... much! Kathy and our German hosts were fantastic and meant we had one of those weekends you couldn’t pay for if you tried. We’ve ordered a case of their wine, and I suspect it won’t be the last...

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Some further reading...

Carcassonne - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcassonne

Staffelter Hof Winery - http://www.staffelter-hof.de/en/intro.html

Mosel Region - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosel_%28wine_region%29

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Part of trip: The European Escapade

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